"98? Are you for real?"
"Damn, he's the first one to be judged and he's getting this much already?"
"...Is the election actually not that hard?"
Amazement, disbelief, and curiosity filled the arena as the students murmured among themselves.
They were completely caught off guard by the score since it was so close to perfection, with only two judges deducting points.
"I knew it!"
Sakamoto adjusted his glasses, having suspected that Tsuna was a capable chef based on the popcorn he made the other day.
Still, he was shocked to see the actual scores now in the Autumn Election.
Clap! Clap!
He then clapped his hands, starting an applause that sent a ripple through the arena as people began to recognize Tsuna's achievement despite their inner turmoil.
They knew that pulling off such a stunt was no small feat.
Considering Tsuna's accomplishments throughout the semester, it was widely acknowledged that this guy was a monster.
"Interesting..."
Ishiki opened his squinted eyes, observing Tsuna's calm expression as if this outcome was nothing to him.
He turned his attention to the embarrassed judges and thought silently, "That curry dish must've been that good, huh?"
As the one responsible for inviting these judges, Ishiki knew their quality better than anyone else in the arena. The fact that Tsuna's dish had made them behave this way spoke volumes about his competence and capability.
"He's two points short of a perfect score..."
Ishiki noted the glaring score of 98 and narrowed his eyes at Ando and Orie, whose expressions seemed unusually tense, "Seems like they're doing this intentionally..."
"M-my image..."
And more importantly...
His pride...
Ando felt aggrieved by how he had behaved like a beast a while ago, which hurt his gentlemanly image.
He glared at Tsuna with a hint of dissatisfaction and mumbled silently, "As much as I wanted to give you a perfect score, you've hurt my pride, and I can't let it go..."
It would take time for him to heal from this.
On the other side, Orie had a flushed expression as she silently thought, "Fufu, I took a point off. Now..."
"Hmph... That was good, I'll admit as much. But it's not satisfying enough."
She scoffed loudly, trying to sound both upset and satisfied. However, her face contorted into a strange expression as she added, "T-that's why... Y-you... should take responsibility and cook me more..."
"..."
Tsuna narrowed his eyes at her, making her flinch.
Yet, instead of fear, she felt her heart racing as she heard Tsuna's footsteps approaching. She looked at him warily, her gaze expectant, while covering herself in a defensive position.
However...
As Tsuna got closer, he didn't seem angered at all.
Instead, he smiled.
"...!"
Orie instinctively froze, the unexpected smile catching her completely off guard.
Tsuna took this chance to lean forward, making Orie close her eyes and slightly pout her lips.
"Uwa..."
Megumi's face flushed red as she covered her eyes with her hands, peeking through her fingers.
The other girls in the arena did the same, shy yet curious about what might happen.
Meanwhile, Alice scoffed at the sight, trying her best to stop her urge from separating them for indecency as she cursed under her breath, "...Perverted bastard!"
Unfortunately for all the girls present, all Orie received was a whisper as Tsuna's breath brushed her ear, "Remember the magic words..."
"..."
Her eyes snapped open as she realized Tsuna had stepped back.
She pouted dissatisfiedly, then noticed a business card Tsuna had left on the table with his restaurant address clearly written on it.
Orie huffed before looking away, "...Idiot."
"Ahem... Please step down, Ito-kun..."
Kawashima spoke, her face flushed. Tsuna nodded and slowly walked back to his workstation to clean up.
Seeing this, Kawashima then announced, "Alright! Next contestant, please!"
"Ha! If you can get 98, I'll get 100..."
A scoff reverberated across the arena as the next student arrogantly approached the judges with his dishes.
He sneered at Tsuna, who didn't even look at him and continued toward his workstation which made him click his tongue in irritation, "Arrogant bastard..."
He was Ishiwatari Takumi, one of the election participants who didn't believe the hype about Tsuna, thinking it was completely exaggerated.
"Who's this fool?"
Orie furrowed her eyebrows at his words, sizing up the student before clicking her tongue in disapproval. Ishiwatari didn't notice her reaction as he confidently placed his dishes in front of the judges.
"Please have a taste..."
He spoke with a smile, stepping back as the judges began to taste his dish.
However...
When Kawashima announced the time for scoring, Ishiwatari's eyes widened in shock as the scores were revealed.
10, 10, 1, 10, 10!
His total score was only 41!
Ishiwatari fell to his knees, mumbling in disbelief, "No way..."
"Hmph, trash..."
Orie scoffed, shattering his will to argue about the score. She had clearly given him a one for being annoying.
Unfortunately for the poor guy, the judgment had to continue as Kawashima politely evicted him from the stage.
As time went on, more students received their scores as they quickly realized how strict the judges were, as scores above 90 were absolutely scarce.
In fact, scores above 80 were already considered top-tier!
The leading scorers, besides Tsuna, mostly had scores in the 80s until Takumi and Hisako replaced their spots with scores of 90 and 92.
Sadatsuka, Yoshino, Hojo, Isami, and Megumi followed closely with scores ranging from 84 to 88, while most participants barely reached 80.
This prompted the remaining participants to gulp nervously.
"...Does that mean..."
"His curry dish was that good?"
They muttered softly, trying to swallow their nervousness under the growing pressure. They turned to look at Tsuna in shock.
Yet, Tsuna didn't seem to care about any of this.
He focused on cleaning up as quickly as he could, eager to leave the arena and continue training.
"Hmm?"
However, he suddenly felt a strong glare and turned to see Alice pouting at him, clearly dissatisfied.
He blinked in confusion as he mumbled, "What's the deal with her?"
"Hmph!"
As their eyes met, Alice looked away, huffing, before making her way to the judges.
"Whoaa! That's the second highest score we had today!"
"Alice Nakiri! As expected of someone with that surname!"
Another uproar ensued as Tsuna saw the name below his replaced by Alice's, with her score of 95.
"...I lost again."
Alice, however, was feeling a bit frustrated with her score. She glared at Tsuna annoyedly and pouted.
As the judging process came to an end, the students looked at the ranking.
Tsuna was at the top with 98, followed by Alice with 95, Hisako with 93, and Takumi with 90. With this, these four participants had officially moved on to the next stage!